One Too Many
by Quill of Minerva
Summary: Aberforth and Albus have one too many firewhiskeys and end up back at Hogwarts where Albus decides to tell a certain Deputy Headmistress just what he feels for her. Please read and review.


**One too Many!**

**Disclaimer:** Sadly the characters do not belong to me, though I wish they did. The song belongs to Frankie Valli.

**Summary: **Aberforth and Albus have one too many firewhiskeys and end up back at Hogwarts where Albus decides to tell a certain Deputy Headmistress just what he feels for her.

**A/N:** Thank you to beta reader Ang. You are a star

Albus Dumbledore, Headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry was making his way along the busy high street of Hogsmeade. It was one of his rare evenings off and he was going to see his brother, who he hadn't had chance to catch up with for a long time. He turned swiftly and walked down the side street, being careful where he stepped.

He glanced up and read the pub sign that displayed the name, 'The Hogs Head', and wrinkled his nose up in disgust at the picture of the severed pigs head that gave the pub its name. He looked around to see if anyone else was in the alley and sighed with relief that there wasn't. It wasn't that he was ashamed of his brother's pub but it did attract a certain type of hooded clientele and it would not be good for him to be seen going in there. He quickly made himself invisible and slipped into the pub as the door was kicked open by some unsavory character.

Albus looked around the small shabby room. The strange scent of goats and other livestock hit him and made him feel quite nauseous. He had never liked the smell of wet goats but his brother couldn't seem to get enough and had devoted his life to his goats and making them happy.

Albus moved to the stairwell and began to make his way up the stairs to the private rooms that Aberforth sometimes rented out for poker games. He knocked a grubby glass to the floor on purpose before continuing his journey up the stairs. This was his calling card and told Aberforth that he was visiting.

Albus became visible again and waited patiently in the room for several minutes before Aberforth burst in with a huge wide smile on his face.

"Brother!" greeted Aberforth slapping him on the back.

"Hello Abe!" replied Albus using the childhood nickname their mother had given his younger brother. "Good to see you again."

"Aye and you too," Aberforth said as he placed a bottle of firewhiskey down on the wobbly table and then reached for two tankards that hadn't seen a cleaning charm for months. "Fancy some poison?"

"Just one then," agreed Albus as he cast two cleaning charms on the tankards before Aberforth filled them up with his own home brewed firewhiskey. "How have you been?"

"Been coasting along just fine my old mucker," replied Aberforth as he poured a generous amount of liquor into both tankards. "Got two more goats from a friend of a friends' father last week. Lively things these ones."

"Where are these two new additions staying?" Albus asked, though he probably had a faint idea.

"Your old bedroom!" announced Aberforth with a childish grin. "Well it's not like you use it anymore now that Hogwarts is your home."

"I may want it back when I'm old and grey," Albus retorted as he picked up his tankard and took a swig. He shuddered as the warming liquid ran down his throat.

"I hate to be the one to tell you Alb but you are old and grey. Well, white but that's the same thing nowadays," Aberforth added with a grin, his blue eyes twinkling just like his older brothers'.

They both burst out into a comfortable laughter and clashed their tankards together before slipping into conversation about mutual friends and what else had been going on in their very different lives. If they hadn't so obviously looked like brothers, you wouldn't have even thought they knew each other but that is what they liked. So different and yet so close. They owled on a regular basis and would always be on hand if the other one needed assistance.

"So how is the Queen of Hogwarts?" asked Aberforth.

"I wish you wouldn't call her that," grumbled Albus. "She is fine as always and still untouchable."

"How long has this been going on Alb?" questioned Aberforth as he refilled their now empty tankards.

"I do believe I have lost count." Albus admitted.

"Too long," pointed out Aberforth. "You should tell her!"

"I can't!" mumbled Albus into his tankard. "She would hex me into the next millennium and never speak to me again."

"Why are you so sure?" asked Aberforth.

"Because I am Albus Dumbledore, Headmaster of the finest school of magic" replied Albus importantly.

"Albus Dumbledore, scaredy cat more like it," mumbled Aberforth under his breath.

"What did you just say?" Albus asked, straining his ears to hear.

"Albus, you are my brother and I love you but you are an idiot!"

Albus took offense to his own brother calling him an idiot. True, he had been called worse in the Daily Prophet but there was something more personal when your own brother called you something like that. Before Albus could reply, Aberforth was refilling his tankard and speaking again.

"You dealt with Grindelwald but you can't deal with a woman! It is ridiculous."

"That coming from a man who counts goats as his best friends," Albus snapped.

"We are not talking about me Albus. We are talking about you!" Aberforth pointed out. "I want you to be happy. You have wasted too many years struggling to keep your emotions at bay but enough is enough. Personally I don't want a woman complicating my life and my research but you do."

Albus mumbled something under his breath and then took another swig of firewhiskey. He knew he shouldn't be drinking the stuff but he wanted to drown out his brother's sensible words. He smiled as that thought popped into his head. He never thought he would put sensible and his brother, Aberforth, in a sentence together. The more he thought about it, the more he laughed, which earned him more than one concerned glance from Aberforth.

Aberforth wasn't aware than he had said anything funny. He was trying to be serious for a change but it didn't seem to be having the effect he had hoped it would have.

"Lets charge our tankards to being serious!" Albus declared a while later.

"I think you might have had a tad too much already," replied Aberforth, who could hold his drink far better than Albus ever could. "Why don't you have something else to drink?"

"Abe come on," urged Albus. "Yoooou always shaay I don't drink much and I am showing you that I can."

"Well I think you have had enough now, dear brother, and I had better help you back to Hogwarts," Aberforth suggested. He didn't particularly like his new role as sensible brother and was amazed that Albus always managed to maintain that role until this evening.

After a lot of encouraging, Aberforth was finally able to get a wobbly Albus on to his feet and threw an invisibility cloak over him. He managed to navigate them both down the rickety staircase without them both falling and landing flat on their faces and then through the crowded pub till they reached the refreshing night air.

Albus was able to walk by himself, not straight of course, but at least he didn't have to rely on Aberforth to prop him up. Albus had never gotten into this state of drunkenness before and even though we wasn't thinking straight, he told himself he would never get this way again. He did feel good for a while, his shoulders seemed less heavy and he was enjoying his time with his brother but he should have stopped drinking when he had felt like that. But now he felt like he wanted to cry.

"Buh Ieee really hic luvvvv herrrr!" Albus stated out loud to no one in particular.

"I know you do," said Aberforth nodding his head.

"But Ieee really, really do Abe," Albus stumbled out as he came to a stop and looking into his brothers eyes and then frowning. "Have yooou always hic had a third eye?"

Aberforth shook his head and held back a laugh. He wondered if he had ever been like this in the early days when he had just discovered alcohol. He pulled the invisibility cloak off his brother and they walked, or staggered in Albus' case, towards Hogwarts.

The journey took them double the time that it usually did and that was because Albus kept looking in shop windows and announcing that the dress, the jewelry, the hat, or books would be just the things he would buy for Minerva if she loved him as he loved her.

"Just tell her Albus," Aberforth said for the fortieth time that evening as they reached Hogwarts.

"Yeeees Iz will now!" Albus declared throwing his head back and puffing out his chest as he stalked forward in the opposite direction of the entrance to Hogwarts.

"Alb, you crazy coot where are you going?" asked Aberforth running after his brother.

"Iz hic going to serenade Minnnerva" answered Albus.

"What?" Aberforth asked.

"Ieee am hic gowwingg to shing her a beauteeful shong."

"I don't think that is such a good idea old chap." Aberforth advised hoping to persuade his brother. But from the way Albus was walking, not even a wild herd of hippogriffs would stop him.

"Dis is her window Abe!" Albus said in a way, which he thought was whispering but in fact, his voice was raised.

"Albus, I don't think you should be doing this" said Aberforth. "Usually I would encourage you but…."

He trailed off as he saw Albus looking at him with a determined glimmer in his eye and knew that there was no point in trying to talk him out of it. Albus was a stubborn and once he decided to do something, it was done minutes later. Aberforth shook his head and decided to keep out of sight so he hid behind one of the many bushes. He really hoped that Albus would change his mind but that hope was shattered when he heard his brother start to sing.

"Yooou're juss hic too good to be truuuue.  
Can't take my eyes hic off yoooou.  
Yooou'd be like Heaven to tooouch hic.  
I wanna hold yoooou so much.  
At long lassst love has arriveeeed  
And Iee thank hic Godsss I'm aliveeee.  
Yooou're jusss too good to be truuuue.

Can't take myyyyy eyes off of youuu"

Aberforth felt his mouth drop open and hit the floor. He couldn't believe this was happening. His brother, the esteemed Headmaster and leader of the elite underground movement called the Order of the Phoenix was singing badly. He would never live this down.

The sound of a window being opened echoed through the darkness and Minerva McGonagall popped her head out of it, expecting to see students. She was visibly shocked when she saw Albus standing below her window singing.

"I luvv yooou, baby,  
And if it'sss quite alrrrighttt,  
I neeeeed yoooou, baby,  
Ta warm a loneeeely night.  
I luvv yoooou, baby.  
Trust in me when I shaay:  
Ohhhh, pretty baaaaby,  
Don't bring me down, I prayyyy.  
Oh, prettyyy hic baby, now that I found youuuu, staaaay"

Another window opened and Severus Snape poked out his disgruntled head. He did not look like a happy potions master.

"Stop that howling Lupin!" he bellowed but stopped what he was saying when he saw the Headmaster waving up at him. "Are you quite well Professor? I thought I heard a werewolf howling."

Minerva was still looking down at the scene before her. She was in a state of shock. What in the name of Merlin was Albus doing outside her window at two in the morning and singing no less?

"Albus!" she asked "Is everything okay?"

"It isss now that Iz have seen your beauteeful face!" he announced loudly.

"Oh please!" replied Snape. "Get him indoors before Rita 'bloody' Skeeter appears!"

Minerva had never been so embarrassed in her life. She was going to make him suffer when he woke the next morning; hangover or not. Didn't he know it was wrong to mess around with people's hearts? Didn't he know he wasn't only making a fool out of himself but out of her as well? She had to think of some way to get him inside the castle and sobered up quickly.

"Albus, why don't you come in?" she suggested softly. "Have a nice mug of hot chocolate."

"I looove youuu Minerva!" he declared.

"Albus, you are drunk?" she stated clearly.

"That maybe but Iee do looove you!" he replied placing his hand on his heart.

By this time most of the windows on the left side of the school had been opened and hundreds of faces were peering out to where the Headmaster stood. The sound of hushed giggles and voices could be heard. Minerva looked down and saw Albus was blowing kisses in her direction, part of her felt overjoyed while the other part wanted to crawl beneath a stone and stay there for a very long time. The girls who were hanging out the window above her started to giggle and it took all her self control, not to take points off them for their behaviour.

"Minerva, I love you!" he declared again, but this time rather clearly as he spun around with his arms open and then promptly fell flat on to his face, passing out as he fell.

The next thing he knew was that he was waking up in his own bed and cursed the sunlight coming in through the curtains. His head was thumping and his tongue seemed too big for his mouth. He placed his hand over his eyes and groaned as memories from the night before came flooding back.

"How are you feeling Alb?" came this brother's voice.

"Oh don't speak so loud Abe," Albus groaned. "My head is killing me. Did I really do what I think I did last night?"

"Yes!" chuckled Aberforth as he put a hang over potion down on his brother's bedside table. "I believe the whole school is talking about your little song last night or should I say early this morning!"

"I didn't want to tell her like that. Why didn't you stop me?" asked Albus. "She probably thought I was just being a drunk fool and will never take me seriously again Abe! How can I face her again let alone tell her that I do love her."

"Albus if he had stopped you, I probably would have never found out how you felt." Minerva's voice floated through the bedroom. "As much as it embarrassed me, I must admit I'm glad you did make a fool out of yourself."

"You…." Albus began. He trailed off because he wasn't sure if he had heard her right.

"I love you too Albus!" she told him as she sat down on his bed and held his hand.

"Oh Minerva," answered Albus opening his eyes to see her there beside him, he couldn't believe this was happening but he was so happy that he hadn't made a fool out of himself for nothing "I love you!"

"I do have one request though," she said softly. "Do you think you can sing that to me when you're not drunk and when there isn't anyone else about?"

"You have yourself a deal Minerva!" he agreed with a faint smile, as he thought about how he was going to face the others

Minerva leaned forward and brushed her lips against his, sealing their love. But before Albus had a chance to deepen it she pulled away and whispered into his ear.

"Of course, I might love you but I am going to have to hex you for making a fool out of me!"

The End!


End file.
